Hardly a day passes without public lamentation about the paucity of leadership in the western democracies. Where, cry a score of the nations’ pundits, is a Churchill, Kennedy, De Gaulle, Adenauer for our generation? As a biographer of Churchill, I answer that question partly by saying: be grateful that, however turbulent our times, they are not so dire as to demand his resurrection. Warriors are usually unsuited to addressing social and economic issues. Wellington, the great commander, was a disastrous prime minister, while Churchill’s response to Britain’s 1926 General Strike was histrionic and divisive.
西方民主國家的公眾幾乎每天都在哀嘆國家領導力的缺失。這些國家有很多學者大聲疾呼，我們這一代人的丘吉爾(Churchill)、肯尼迪(Kennedy)、戴高樂(De Gaulle)、阿登納(Adenauer)在哪里啊？作為丘吉爾的傳記作者，我對這個問題給出的一個答案是：我們應該心懷感激，不論我們這個時代多么動蕩，還不至于糟糕到需要丘吉爾復活。斗士通常不適合解決社會和經濟問題。偉大將領威靈頓(Wellington)當首相是場災難，丘吉爾對英國1926年大罷工(General Strike)的反應過度并導致社會分裂。